1. Theo must have written about the ‘Exposition de Peinture’ at the dealer Georges Petit’s premises at 12 rue Godot de Mauroy. This exhibition opened on 12 June 1883. There were works by Corot (14 pieces), Daubigny (6), Decamps (9), Delacroix (7), Diaz (4), Dupré (4), Fortuny (7), Fromentin (4), Meissonier (7), Millet (6), Rousseau (13), Troyon (9) and others, among them thirty old masters. See Cent chefs-d’oeuvre des collections parisiennes. Paris 1883.
2. Two etched portraits of Carlyle by Alphonse Legros are known: Petit portrait de Thomas Carlyle (Small portrait of Thomas Carlyle) and Grand portrait de Thomas Carlyle (Large portrait of Thomas Carlyle) (Paris, BNF, Cabinet des Estampes) Ill. 1040 [1040] and Ill. 2103 [2103]. But these are not set in his study.
[1040] [2103]
3. Victor Hugo wrote in William Shakespeare: ‘He was exiled. He died in exile. Then the orator Lycurgus declared: We must put up a bronze statue to Aeschylus. Athens, which had driven out the man, put up the statue’ (Il fut exilé. Il mourut en exil. Alors l’orateur Lycurgue s’écria: Il faut élever à Eschyle une statue de bronze. Athènes, qui avait chassé l’homme, éleva la statue). Hugo 1864, p. 177.
4. Charles Green and Henry Towneley Green.
5. Potato grubbers (F 1034 / JH 372 [2442]).
[2442]
6. This drawing of an old potato grubber is not known.
7. This is probably Sower (F 1035 / JH 374 [2443]); it is known only as a photograph. It is probably a drawing.
[2443]
8. These drawings of weed burners, done in early July, are not known; for the subject, see the letter sketch, watercolour and lithograph Weed burners (F - / JH 376; F 1035a / JH 375; and F 1660 / JH 377 [3029]).
[3029]
9. These drawings of a man with a sack of potatoes on his neck and a man with a wheelbarrow are not known.
10. Van Gogh had spoken to Tersteeg shortly before (letter 356). Tersteeg’s view that he should produce saleable work had already been mentioned in letter 201.
11. The idea of ‘mediocrité’ is expressed emphatically several times in Zola’s Mes haines, which at the end Van Gogh says he has read (l. 224). Cf. Sund 1992, p. 276 (n. 156).
a. Variant of ‘kleine’.
12. ‘The everlasting no’ and ‘the everlasting yes’, mentioned later, allude to two chapter titles in Thomas Carlyle, Sartor resartus, book 2, chapters 7 and 9. Van Gogh had read it shortly before; he quotes from it in letter 356.
13. For ‘collier’s faith’, see letter 286, n. 17.
14. Prior to 1888 there were no magazines named The Pictorial News. The English weekly The Penny Pictorial News (also cited as The Penny Pictorial News and Family Story Paper), which appeared between 1877 and 1888, was continued under that name. After that it was called the Penny Pictorial Weekly. See British Union-Catalogue of Periodicals. London 1957, p. 522.
Besides The Penny Pictorial News there was The Pictorial World. An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper (1874-1892). Van Gogh probably confused the two names, because in the estate there are eight illustrations by Frederick Barnard from this periodical published on 9 and 30 June 1883 (with the book How the poor live by George R. Sims; t*510-513), that is, just before he wrote about them. Further evidence that he had this periodical in mind is provided by the following letter, probably of a day later, where he refers to one of these illustrations (letter 359). The idea that the publication was new was a misunderstanding, since it had been in existence for nine years.
15. Sien’s son Willem had been born on 2 July 1882.
16. An allusion to the novel La confession d’un enfant du siècle (1836) by Alfred de Musset, which Van Gogh mentions in letter 383.
17. For the series ‘Artist strolls in Holland’, with illustrations by George Henry Boughton and Edwin Abbey, see letter 348, n. 11. Letter 359 shows that Van Rappard sent the numbers to Van Gogh.
18. The series of articles ‘Artist strolls in Holland’ includes a detailed, enthusiastic description of Marken – the inhabitants, their costume, houses, customs and harbour (pp. 394-405); it speaks of ‘the glowing quaintness of the isle of Marken trip’ (p. 539). The article was accompanied by a print after Boughton’s painting A bit of Marken (p. 393). The North Holland island of Marken is on the IJsselmeer (at that time still the Zuiderzee).
19. Van Gogh must have had the combined edition of Mes haines, causeries litteraires et artistiques. Mon Salon (1866). Edouard Manet, étude biographique et critique. Paris 1879. This may be deduced from the fact that he quotes from different parts. Cf. also 359.
Nonetheless, it is not clear what Van Gogh means by Zola’s ‘general reflections’. In none of the three parts of this edition is there a chapter that fits this description. Despite what Van Gogh says, Millet is indeed discussed: in the essay ‘Les chutes’ in Mon Salon two pages are devoted to him.
20. This passage from Zola criticizing the attitude of the art-loving public reads: ‘And note that what pleases it is always what is most banal, what it is accustomed to seeing every year. Our artists do not spoil it; they have accustomed it to insipidities of that kind, to such pretty lies, that it rejects powerful truths with all its strength. In that it is a simple matter of education’. (Et observez que ce qui lui plaît est toujours ce qu’il y a de plus banal, ce qu’elle a coutume de voir chaque année. Nos artistes ne la gâtent pas; ils l’ont habituée à de telles fadeurs, à des mensonges si jolis, qu’elle refuse de toute sa puissance les vérités fortes. C’est là une simple affaire d’éducation). See Zola 1966-1970, vol. 12, p. 845. Van Gogh added ‘au public’ and emphasized the words.
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